The Energy Commission approved in parliament a tax on excess profits for energy producers, which could lead to up to 3.1 billion euros. This happened without a critic Marie-Christine Marghem (MR), who strategically left the meeting before the vote.
‘Only when you are not a minister will the negative judgment on this law come’, Marie-Christine Marghem (MR), the former energy minister, lashed out against Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen) and her bill, intended to skim off electricity producers’ excess profits. As a reminder, the federal government wants to skim profits from August this year to June next year if they exceed $130 per megawatt hour.
• Excessive subsidies are as difficult to manage as excess profits
“The text seems legally weak to us,” Marghem continued. Indeed, the legal soundness of the scheme will determine whether the government can successfully skim some €3.1 billion of excess profits from electricity producers and Fluxys. A concern that MP Bert Wollants (N-VA) also expressed, especially after the Critical advice from the State Council data on the scheme. It goes beyond what Europe is proposing. Europe only talks about excess profits starting at 180 euros, but allows member states to deviate from this. Wollants mainly wonders if there is enough evidence as to why the limit is set at 130 euros.
Holland and Germany
Tinne Van der Straeten points to energy regulator Creg, who calculated that a few years ago electricity producers could expect a maximum price of 80 euros per MWh as a ceiling price. The federal government adds an extra 50 euros. This amount must ensure that there is still sufficient investment scope for electricity producers and must cover past losses. Van der Straeten indicates, among other things, Holland, where the ceiling could be as high as 130 euros. Our northern neighbors will only cut excess profit by 90 percent. And in Germany, according to Van der Straeten, work is also being done on a scheme with different ceilings below 130 euros.
Another concern, expressed by Wollants and others, concerns the differences in treatment for the various technologies and whether the nuclear energy sector – which already pays a sharing contribution – will not have to shell out a disproportionate amount. Van der Straeten admitted that 95 percent of the expected extra profit – including the contribution to distribution – will come from nuclear energy. But he noted that the nuclear power sector does not pay double tax for eEnergin, because the existing distribution levy is offset against the excess profit tax that a nuclear plant would have to pay.
All these arguments failed to convince N-VA. The party then abstained from voting. PVDA presented its proposal with a lower cap, but still voted in favour. The majority, supported by Vlaams Belang, has given the green light to the excess profit tax. The majority without Marie-Christine Marghem, it is true, that she indicated that she wanted to re-read Van der Straeten’s answers first, and then left the room. It’s not the first time who in this way expresses his disapproval of the work of his successor. His party colleague Mathieu Bihet simply voted in favour.
Van der Straeten is well aware that there is a possibility for energy producers to contest the contribution of the profit surplus. “The gravity of battle means nothing to those at peace”, he concluded with the words of the Egyptian entrepreneur and writer Mo Gawdat. Or: For those who live in harmony with themselves, no matter how hard the fight.
